This blog contains assorted news and commentary on the fundraising profession and philanthropy gathered by the AFP Fundraising Resource Center.
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The firm announced on Thursday that it had started a competition for young analysts to compete for donations to a charity of their choosing. As they would with a deal proposal, bankers and other employees at the firm can form teams and pitch their nonprofit. The winner, chosen by a committee, will receive a grant for their organization of $100,000; second place will receive $50,000, and third place, $25,000.

Micromanagement or Insubordination: It’s a Matter of Perspective | Nonprofit Quarterly: "When trust erodes between a nonprofit executive and a board, the death throes of the relationship can be torturous. Forrest Rodgers used to be the CEO at the Northwest Museum of Arts and Culture in Spokane, but last summer a simmering struggle between Rodgers and the board blew up in a big way. After a long period of infighting one board member after another resigned, many of them in Rodgers’s camp, and once the coast was clear, the remainder of the board began a series of evaluations provided to him in written memos, culminating in an order to receive management training."

The Generational Echo: ’60s Kids Causing New “Boom” in Nonprofits | Nonprofit Quarterly: "A 2015 study published by Merrill Lynch Global Wealth Management in partnership with consulting group Age Wave specifically credits baby boomers with donating $8 trillion ($6.6 trillion in cash and $1.4 trillion in volunteer hours) over the course of the next two decades, a pleasantly astonishing figure the Nonprofit Quarterly wrote about soon after the study was released last October. However, that yearning to support a wide array of causes doesn’t just stop at dollar signs and pro bono labor. Boomers are also embarking on second wave careers as founders of their own nonprofit organizations, post-retirement. Data shows that interest among individuals between the age of 50 and 70 in building a nonprofit from the ground up has nearly doubled since 2012."

Donor centricity is easy, but it’s not | 101fundraising: "It’s really unfair. Like any fundraiser, you’ll eventually discover the concept of donor centricity, just like any marketeer discovers customer experience optimisation. You’ll love the concept, because your gut tells you it’s the Truth. You’ll read all available material to find out how to do it. And then, as soon as you get started, you’ll start facing problems, resistance and obstruction every single step of your donor centricity project. While you’re trying to make things better for everyone. Really, really unfair."

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The Patriots Initiative, which relies on both qualitative and quantitative research to judge the effectiveness of charities that serve veterans and members of the armed forces, said there is no excuse for certain spending by Wounded Warrior officials, recently reported in the media."

Ongoing series from NPQ Toward Transfeminism: Moving Beyond Inclusion | Nonprofit Quarterly: "This piece is part of our ongoing Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion (EDI) Project created to spotlight millennials’ voices and thoughts on diversity and justice. We urge you to read how this project came together in collaboration between NPQ and the Young Nonprofit Professionals Network and about the ideology behind this series. We intend to publish another 22 pieces in the upcoming months. Readers will be able to subscribe to an RSS feed to follow articles as they are published, approximately every two weeks. NPQ and YNPN will be using the hashtag #EDISeries, so post about the series along with us."

It's part of a package deal at the Alaska Zoo, just one piece in a strategy particular to non-profits in the high north: Finding ways to bring in a little extra cash during the long, lean winter months ahead of tourist season."

Tuesday, March 01, 2016

Posted on March 1, 2016 by Nicole McGougan
The Blackbaud Index reported that overall charitable giving to nonprofits increased 0.4% while online giving increased 10.8% for the three months ending January 2016 as compared to the same period in 2015.
As reported in the recently released Charitable Giving Report, overall giving in the United States increased 1.6% while online giving grew 9.2% for the full year 2015 as compared to the full year 2014. To learn more about how nonprofit fundraising performed in 2015, download the full report at www.blackbaud.com/charitablegiving."

Cutting Fundraisers Doesn’t Result In Greater Efficiency - The NonProfit TimesThe NonProfit Times: "Management experts have been harping for decades that nonprofits should operate more like for-profit corporations. Well, now they are emulating many for-profit firms. They just aren’t selecting the correct organizations to replicate. Successful for-profits “sell” their way out of a recession. That means adding staff to move product and find new leads. Charities have tended to go in the opposite direction, laying-off the revenue drivers when budgets get tight instead of doubling down on those hired to generate the income.

The U.S. economy goes into recession roughly every nine years with varying lengths and depths. It’s not as if charity executives can’t see one coming and plan for it. When the higher-ups screw up, the fundraisers are the ones who either get chopped or pushed to do even more with a donor base that shrinks every day."

Charity bingo was first created in 1980 by a statewide vote, but it has faced declining popularity amid the rise of other gambling options. The number of licensed operators fell from 937 in 2010 to 623 last year."

How a New Generation of Business Leaders Views Philanthropy: "Today, business leaders are not only trying to address community and global problems earlier in their lives; they are also questioning the traditional divide between commerce and philanthropy. As prominent hedge fund manager Bill Ackman told me, “When I graduated from business school I thought business was about making money and philanthropy was about doing good. Now I think both can be used as methods for changing the world.” Sir Ronald Cohen, the father of British venture capital, agrees. “We are on the verge of a revolution,” he explains. “Just as technology and entrepreneurship have transformed the way we live, applying investment and business tools to social problems is disrupting everything from philanthropy to governments to investing.”"

Counting on Charity: Wounded Warrior Project Roundup: "Wounded Warrior Project Roundup
Starting with the one-two punch of critiques by CBS and The New York Times, the once pristine Wounded Warrior Project (WWP) has faced substantial scrutiny over the past month. Now that the dust has somewhat settled on the accusations, I want to provide a brief summary of where things stand from my viewpoint."